


Our reality

by Bebec



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Action & Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel Powers, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Deckerstar - Freeform, Demons, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Humor, Post-Season/Series 02, Relationship(s), Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-19 20:18:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10647312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bebec/pseuds/Bebec
Summary: POST 2x13. Light attracts Darkness... and vice versa. Will Lucifer be able to stay away from his light...stay away from Chloe ? Deckerstar. Rating M to come.





	1. Adieu

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!  
> This story is written is French in the beginning but I decided to translate it in English :)  
> It's also available (both language) in fanfiction net.  
> Enjoy and let a comment

**ADIEU**

A void.

  
That's what he felt when looking around him. A huge void... around him. In him. Like a break. The end of something. Something that was so important... So valuable. So much sense.

All this... Completely ruined.

  
Lucifer sighed. A sigh concealing a greater emotion. More out of control. An emotion to which Lucifer didn't want to give in. Not now. Not yet. He slid the long white sheet over the piano, covering the lustrous black wood with this dull and lifeless cloth.  
Dead.

  
Lucifer felt... dead. He was breathing. Moving. Thinking. But still... It was like his soul had been sucked... obliterated. Linda had only brought back a lifeless envelope from Hell. A wreck. The Devil... A man broken. By the closest beings to him. Those who were supposed to love him. To support him. His mother...His Father...All of them...Even Chloe. Everybody had manipulated him. Everybody had mocked him. Once again. The last straw.

  
It was enough.

  
Enough.

  
Enough with these shabby little games. Enough with lies. Enough with promises.

  
_Enough._

  
He gently stroked the white sheet covering now his piano, stroking the remains of his life here. The life he had here. Deceptions. Delights. Hopes. Stroking everything that this place had offered him... and everything it had snatched from him.  
This place which brought him Chloe...and which took her away from him.

  
_Chloe..._

  
Thinking about her, it awoke in him a dull pain and a deep hatred. Not of her. of them. of Him. And himself. Chloe had only been a pawn. So was he. So was his brother. Lucifer smiled softly, a weary smile. He found it ironic. The entire world... saw him as the original manipulator... Him... _A manipulator_. He could have learned a lot from that part with his parents.

  
He walked away from the piano, slowly wandering between all the covered furniture. Wandering over the scattered remains of his earthly life. Wandering over his soul.

  
He wanted to leave. He had to leave.

  
Staying here was no longer possible. Unbereable. As much by the truth about him and Chloe as by his torment lived in Hell. He stopped nearby the balcony, staring with a tormented gaze the area between him and the piano. This area where Uriel had stood. This space of torture. This space of guilt.

  
_The peace is here..._

  
Really? For who? For him? Lucifer doubted it. Peace had always been forbidden to him. Peace was not necessarily intended for him... It might be Chloe's peace. Bring her peace. Salvation. A salvation which only would come by his own retirement. Lucifer exhaled gently, a deep lassitude assaulting each muscle, each cell from his body. He couldn't stay here anymore. He could no longer think. He was tired. Tired of all this masquerade.  
Of this perpetual fight. Of these fake memories...Distorted.

  
_" I'm not here for a case...I'm here for you...I thought you could use a friend..."_

  
_" Despite all your weirdness...I really like working with you ! "_

  
_" I guess we make a good team after all, don't we ? "_

  
_" And we'll talk... We'll talk later, yeah ? "_

  
Lucifer swallowed hard, a tenacious knot suddenly obstructing his throat. So, all of this was just a lie? All these gestures... All these chats... All these moments... Everything... A simple lie? Was there one single thing... one single real moment? No... None of this was real. These emotions embracing his heart right now... Were they real? Or only another divine manipulation? Lucifer no longer knew. The only thing he knew... was the need to leave this place. Leave her. To get away. Let her live her life without celestial manipulation. Let her decide. Let her choose. A choice he had never had.

  
Lucifer walked slowly to the elevator. He switched off the lights, plunging the room into darkness... A darkness partially illuminated by the lighting of the elevator. A darkness sending him back to his own darkness. A darkness he didn't want to inflict to her. She was only Light. It was quite logical, in a way. Light attracts Darkness... and vice versa. The fact that him and Chloe were attracted to each other appeared as quite logical. A logical manipulation. Lucifer entered the narrow cabin, the doors gently closing on him.

  
Closing on Lucifer Morningstar: eccentric owner of the Lux and civilian consultant for the LAPD.

 

\-----------------------

 

He walked slowly to his car, the fresh air of the evening breeze tickling the back of his neck. He opened the door of the car and glanced one last time the Lux before sitting at the wheel, closing up the door with a blow. He felt his phone strongly vibrate against his thigh and sighed. He pulled it out of his pocket, his hand clenching while reading the name on the bright screen.

  
Chloe... It was a voicemail from Chloe.  
Not one voicemail... The hundredth.

  
Lucifer swallowed, his fingers tightening the phone against his moist palm. He brought the phone to his ear, the awkward embrace around his heart becoming more accentuated. After a first "beep", Chloe's sweet voice could be heard... A voice making his entire determination falter. A brief moment.

  
**_" Hey ! It's me again...Voicemail 337! "_** she joked clumsily.

  
A clumsy joke that let a slight smile on Lucifer's lips. An awkward emotion emerging inwardly, and amplifying at each syllable pronounced by the young woman.

  
**_"I am noxious, right ? But... Hum.... It's just that you... you haven't been picking up or returning my calls so... I... I'm on my way over ! "_**

  
Indeed.

  
She was on her way over.

  
Lucifer noticed the car of the detective a little farther on, in the dark and deserted street. She parked in front of Lux. Lucifer didn't move. He stood there, sit in his car... hidden by the dim light... the phone still against his ear, watching Chloe getting out of her car and moving forward the entrance of Lux. She looked completely healed, her steps clearly more alert although a bit nervous. She looked around her, her blond hair swept by the fresh breeze. Lucifer memorized each feature, each mimic, each gesture proper to Chloe... listening with emotion the end of the message. Her last words accompanying Chloe's movements...Which led her to open the front door, under his troubled gaze.

  
**_" So...Hide the strippers ! "_** she joked again, a long silence following this approximated joke.

  
A silence during which Chloe passed the front door, that same door closed behind her. That same door that concluded her message.

  
**_" ...Yeah...I...I just hope you're okay...Okay...Bye..."_**

  
Lucifer heard the final "beep", putting several seconds to lower the phone, his dark look still stubbornly fixed in the direction of this door. He finally looked away, without actually seeing the phone in his hands. His trembling hands. Just like the rest of his body. He took a deep breath and threw the phone a little further down the street. He should not leave a trace. Not a single clue about where he was going. He didn't know himself.  
But having Chloe chasing him... it would only make things much more difficult. For him. And for her. Lucifer started the engine of the car, glancing one more time towards Lux. Towards Chloe. A look that seemed to last an eternity.

  
"Goodbye ... Chloe ..." he whispered, his voice roughened by emotion or by that knot down his throat.

  
Goodbye...

  
This word was not strong enough to define this separation. The appropriate word was...

  
_Adieu…_


	2. She's fine...she's alive...

_Faster, faster, faster !_

  
Lucifer pushed unceremoniouscly the people who barred him from the road, these latter exclaiming outrageously on his way. Never mind. He didn't care. He had to move forward. To hurry. Why didn't he move faster ? Each of his steps...Each of his strides...was abnormally slow. As if he were struggling in shifting sands. However, Lucifer had to move forward. Before it's too late. Maybe it was already...

  
_No..._

  
He couldn't afford to doubt now. Not after all this. There was still time. He could still save her. He had got the formula. Finally. All that remained to be done was to move forward and quickly reach the room. Only to join her and give the formula. He could do it.

  
He _had_ to do it.

  
Lucifer continued to advance, each step more slowly than the previous ones, his shoes deeply embedded on the white ground of the hospital. He drew at his aching muscles, struggling against the fatigue of his body and mind. He couldn't afford any weakness. He would arrive at this bloody room, at all costs. He shoved another person in front of him, the latter shouting after him as he continued on his unsteady road. Nothing mattered. Only this room. Only this formula. Lucifer sighed in relief as he saw the so-called chamber at the end of the corridor.

  
He made it. He had succeeded. He let out a hoarse exclamation: a mixture of exhaustion and relief filling his entire body. He ran – always with an unbearable slowness – until the wide open door of the coveted room. That open door...that seemed to await his coming. His return.

  
Lucifer leaned on the door-frame, exhausted and covered with sweat. He cought his breath for a moment and risked a glance inside the room. Why were there so many people around her bed? What was happening ? He opened his mouth, wishing to draw attention to him...to warn them that he finally had the solution. Noting came. No sound deigned to come out of his mouth except for his hoarse and irregular breathing, just like the beatings of his heart. He entered the room, moving away from the door with an uncertain gait, unceremoniously dismissing the doctors barring him once more the passage.

  
Why were they all around that bed ?

  
He nugded a nurse with a stroke of the shoulder and put his gaze on the bed, his heart missing a beat.

  
_No...It's not possible...It can't be..._

  
He raised a trembling hand toward Chloe's cheek, clasping the cold metallic rim of the bed where she was streched with the other hand. Motionless. Too static. He gently caressed her cheek, hoping by this simple gesture to awaken the young woman. Get any sign of life. A hope. Something.

  
_Nothing._

  
Only the acute and incessant signal of her flat electro-encephalogram. Only death. Lucifer put his hand on the detective's shoulder, gently shaking it first and then accentuating his grip around that cold, motionless shoulder. Like the rest of her body. Lucifer felt his breathing accelerate until became erratic as he quickly turned to the unusually stoic doctors behind him.

  
" _ **HELP HER! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR ?! I HAVE THE FORMULA!**_ ", he yelled, a prey to a dull panic that chilled every inch of his body.

  
He gave desperate looks to the doctors and nurses present, who just glared at him. They didn't move an inch. Lucifer didn't understand what was going on. Why did they not try to save her?

  
_Why...?_

  
" I knew I couldn't trust you..."

  
Lucifer turned to the door, seeing Dan close to it. The latter looked at him coldly, an unbounded hatred in his eyes.

  
"How could I think for a moment that Chloe's life was important to you ?! ", spat the detective Espinoza to Lucifer's face.

  
The latter opened his mouth without being able to say anithing. Of course that Chloe's life was important to him! Otherwise he would never have...

 

  
" You were supposed to find the formula, Lucifer! Why have you so late ?! ", a more feminine voice accused him.   
He turned to the window opposite to the door, looking with confusing Linda. He had never seen her so angry...An anger turned towards him. Why? He had done as quickly as possible. He'd done everything possible to...

  
" You changed, Lucifer...", Maze accused him in a cold voice - the latter suddenly appearing next to Dan. " And Chloe pays the price, now...Look what you've done!"

  
Lucifer stared at Mazekeen without understanding. No. It was wrong. He...He wasn't responsable....He...

  
What could he have done more ?

  
He heard sniffles behind him and turned around. He caught sight of Trixie curled up against her mother's lifeless body, her tears running along Chloe's pale, cold face. An image that caused an unbearable pain in Lucifer's chest. He stepped back a few steps, helpless. Trixie looked up, her face streaked with tears, a grimace of suffering distording her features. She looked Lucifer straight in the eyes, her small brown eyes expressing immense pain.

  
"Why...Why Lucifer ? I thought you were my friend...I thought you loved her...", lamented the little girl, squeezing her mother's pajamas more between her little hands.

  
Lucifer shook his head, opening and closing his mouth in front of this image. Face these accusations. No. They were wrong. All of them. Why could not they see that he'd done everything to save her? His body was covered with uncontrollable tremors as he moved further from Trixie and Chloe, dumbfounded.

  
"N...No! It's not true...", he stammered weakly, stepping back slowly and glancing imploringly at his friends. " I...I did what I could...I didn't want this ! I wanted t...to save her..."

  
"But you can't, brother...that's the problem...", said a flat voice.

  
Lucifer jumped and turned once more toward the door. Dan and Maze had disappeared, replaced by Uriel, the latter looking at him with his usual tranquility. Lucifer widened his eyes in surprise and let out a hoarse exclamation, retraeting this time towards Chloe's bed. How had Uriel come so far? It was simply impossible. He was dead. Dead and buried.

  
Uriel gave him a calm and confident smile, his hands behind his back as usual. He shook his head in spite and repeated in his horribly quiet voice in every circumstance :

  
" You can't save her...You never could...And you know why ? Because you're a monster, Lucifer. And monsters don't help others...They destroy them! That's all you've ever done, brother...Destroy everything around you..."

  
Lucifer shook his head in denial, disturbed.

  
"No...That's a lie...You're lying ! ", accused him in a trembling voice of rage and fear.

  
Uriel tilted his head slightly, a reprouving pout sketching on his lips to the rebuff of his elder brother. He slapped his tongue of disapproval and rebuked him in a much softer tone :

  
" Come on, Luci...it isn't good to lie! Look for yourself if you don't believe me..."

  
Lucifer felt his right arm stand up instinctivly and gazed frightfully at Azrael's ensangled blade which his hand held firmly. He widened his eyes with terror, his heart drumming painfully against his chest as he adressed a desperate look at Uriel.

  
"N...No...please...not this...", he begged him, trembling.

  
His brother contented himself with smiling and spreading his arms, inviting him to move forward. Inviting him to demonstrate his theory. In spite of himself, Lucifer moved forward his younger brother. Each step being a little faster. Too fast.

  
No. He didin't want to. Not again. It wasn't his fault. He wasn't responsable.

  
Lucifer continued to approach his brother inexorably, and violently pressed the blade into Uriel's abdomen. Killing him one more time.

  
Once too often.

 

\---------------------------------

 

  
Lucifer opened his eyes and sat upright on his bed, a strangled cry crossing the fence of his trembling lips. Like the rest of his body. He could well inspire and exhale deeply, his lungs were still painfull and looking for air. He couldn't breathe calmly. To simply calm down. Panting and covered with sweat. Lucifer looked around, disoriented. He stared at the worn-out furniture in the room where he was standing: the awful green carpert over the whole surface of the room, the damaged and greyish blinds barely inhibiting the screaming red light from the sordid motel's bilboard where he had been living for six long months. He fixed each element of the room, his frightened mind gradually renewing with the reality. Gradually emerging from the anguish that had dominated him since his brutal awakening.

  
Uriel wasn't here. There was only him here. Him and the cockroaches. Lucifer managed to regulate his breathing after several minutes, his body still running through uncontrollable tremors. He closed his eyes and swallowed.

  
It was only a nightmare.

  
Always the same. Each night. Since his departure. And Lucifer always had as much difficulty to calm down afterwards. He had more and more trouble. Each night being more horrible. More exhausting. He pulled his knees against his bare chest and gently rubbed his moist forehead with the back of his hand.

  
" _She's alive...She's fine..._ ", whispered weakly Lucifer, eyes still closed.

  
A sentence that he kept repeating after each nightmare. After every panicked awakening. Everytime. A kind of mantra. A magic formula to calm his nerves. To be reassured. And regain control over his body...and mind. A control that excaped him a little more every infernal night spent here. He felt it. He was losing more and more ground over time. A fact that frustrated him. He cursed his own weakness, without having any control over it. Lucifer passed a hand over his face, hoping to chase away the stubborn remains of this nightmare. Without great result. If only it was that simple...

  
Every time he closed his eyes, he could see every hateful face...clearly heard every scornful accusation in his mind, like a painful and horribly precise whiplash. He revisited the serene Uriel's face...the blade...her lifeless body...  
Lucifer clenched his fists and repeated again :

  
_"She's alive...She's fine..."_

  
He was tired of suffering all these emotions. Continually. Without any respite. Even in his sleep. He had no escape. Neither alcohol nor drugs...not even the carnal pleasures...He could no longer do it. Not since...He couldn't touch anyone any more without feeling a deep disgust for himself. He was alone. Disarmed. Poor.   
  
He had wanted all this, isn't it ? No one had forced him to leave. It was his decision. A decision that only made things worse. Lucifer thought to forget...Turn the page...Instead, he spent each day and night rehearsing the memories of his former life. Rehearsing his fears. His pain.

  
Six months.

  
Six interminable months. Away from everything. To live by proxy.

  
He was nothing but a ghost. A traveling corpse.

  
Lucifer freed himself from the blankets and walked slowly towards the bathroom, just as shabby as the rest of the place. He had deliberately avoided any luxurious place. Avoided to draw attention to him, to give any indication about the place where he was. Avoided to act accroding to his habits. Do the opposite. She was smart. But not as much as he. He didn't only avoid her...he didn't want to see anyone. Neither Linda...Amenadiel...Charlotte or Maze...No one should find him.   
All he wanted was to leave him alone at last. Let him be at peace. For once...on every millenium of existence. Leaving him alone.

  
Lucifer walked over to the sink, turning the tap and spraying cold water several times his face. He closed sharply the tap after few seconds, leaning against the cracked porcelain of the sink. He raised his head and looked his reflection in the mirror covered with dirt. He stared blankly at his streaming face and a disturbing pallor, his nascent bear coming out more on his wet skin. His eyes were empty, two bottomless wells with deep, purplish dark circles. He passed a hand through his dark hair, raised in the ears of his skull, still standing after this unnecessary gesture. The skin of his bare chest gently glowed, his body still sweating after this...agitated dream.

  
Lucifer fixed his reflection, his eyes offered him a lost look.

  
" _She's alive...She"s fine..._ ", he said in a breath to his ghostly reflection.

  
Why did he always have so much pain in his heart ? Why this pain didn't fade?

  
He tightened his fingers around the porcelain sink, his joints whitening briefly under the strenght of his grip, the porcelain emetting a slight crack of protest. He released his grip and straightened, gently retreating. His back encountered the cold, tiled surface of the shower behind him. He let himself slip to the ground, bringing again his knees against his chest. What a pathetic spectacle...The prostrate Devil on the filthy floor of a shower cubicle...What a wonderful vengeance...A terrifying vision of the relentless wrath of the Lord of Hell...

  
What a joke...

  
Him...The Lord of Hell...

  
Before...Not anymore...

  
His last visit had amply demonstrated it. He was no longer the Devil.  
Revenge...What's the point? How taking revenge on ** _Him ?_**  On his mother ? Was it so important now? Nothing mattered. He didn't even know who he was...Lucifer? Samael? An angel? A man? A demon? All and none of all this at once?   
He was nobody. Just a prostrate guy in a rotten motel.

  
A tired man.

  
All he wanted...was that she was coming out of his head...from his dreams...from his heart...

  
That Chloe leaves him at peace.

  
Was she fine ? Really? He kept repeating these words without knowing the truth. Was she safe, far from him? Lucifer closed his eyes again and gently struck – at regular intervals – the back of his skull against the tiled wall.

  
 _"She's alive...She's fine..._ ", he repeated an umpteenth time in a voice inaudible by anyone other than him.

  
He'd had enough of this internal suffering. This unbereable pain. A pain less raw than a physical blow, but much more consequent on him. He would have prefered to be beaten, beaten to death...it seemed preferable to this incessant torment. Hell and its torments seemed preferable...

  
Lucifer opened his eyes and looked at his phone on the laundry basket near him, uncertain. He took it and stared at it intensely for an eternity.

  
And if...? What harm was there to...? He had to make sure. Once. Only once.

  
Lucifer stopped fixing his phone and quickly dialed a number on the screen, then carrying the device to his ear. Each tone was accompanied by a painful heartbeat in his chest. He let a minute pass – bathed in electronic tones – before pretending to hang up. It was a mistake. A stupid mistake. He jumped at the sound of a sleepy feminine voice, his body paralyzed on the cold floor of the shower.

  
 ** _Her_** voice.

  
 ** _" Decker..."_** , she mumbled at the end of the line.

  
He no longer breathed. Frozen at the simple hearing of this intonation so peculiar to Chloe. Nothing else mattered except this voice on the phone. He no longer felt the frozen contact of the ground beneath him and against his back, his entire mind turned towards her. His hand tightened around the phone, a dull pain palpitating around his heart.

  
 ** _" Hello?...Who is this?_** ", asked Chloe in a more alert voice.

  
Lucifer didn't say anything. Deprived of his voice, his movements. Only his mind worked at full speed. He contented himself with listening to her voice, strongly inspiring the air on his lungs embraced by anguish and other indefinable emotions. Lucifer was completely paralyzed by the powerful emotions that swept through him, opening and closing his mouth pathetically. Frozen by this painful vise around his chest. Why did he call her? To torture himself a little more...like that, without reason ? What did he hope?

  
Chloe's voice was heard again, trembling :

  
**_"...Lucifer?...Is that you? "_ **

  
The latter closed his eyes on hearing his first name. His name pornounced with such hope and fear at the same time. The vice around his chest tightened more, almost stifling him. He remained stubbornly silent, unable to pronounce a single syllable...a single word. What could he have said? He opened his eyes, these abnormally wet and burning.

  
 ** _" Lucifer...Where are you ? Are you okay ?_** ", hastened to ask the detective with anxiety.

  
She was worried about him. Of course. She...who was so selfless. Even now. Despite his actions. He closed his eyes for a moment, the tingling around them becoming more insistent. He inhaled deeply before hanging up, throwing the cell phone away.   
It was a mistake.

  
He shouldn't have called her. Lucifer felt even worse...As if he were on the verge of implosion...Of madness.

  
He raised his arm above him and slowly turned the hot water tap. A sharp squeal sound on the shower head before a warm water caresses his body, soaking his pants, his hair...every part of his body. He laid the back of his skull against the tiled wall, offering his face to the burning rain pouring from the rusty shower head. Leaving his tears to mingle with this comforting water. The single witness of his suffering. Being one with it.

  
Lucifer let out a low sigh before whispering a last time :

  
_"She's alive...She's fine..."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget comment (still and always appreciate XD)


	3. Whether he likes it or not

" Lucifer?... _LUCIFER?!_ Damn it...! "

  
Chloe only heard the incessant tones in her ear. More than a tone, she heard a cry. A call for help. The young woman hung up quickly to recall Lucifer just as quickly to this number. She squeezed the blanket covering her body in her fingers, a clenching response to the more intense one in her chest. Her body and mind were tense, strained by anxiety and an almost unbearable hope. Painful. Chloe got immediately the voicemail. Whatever reason Lucifer had called her that night...had also led him to turn off his phone immediately afterwards. She hung up, clenching her teeth and sheets between her thin fingers.

  
She was divided between several emotions of an intensity hardly bearable. Fear, relief, anger... Everything blended in her head since this unexpected phone call. A hope that galvanized and simultaneously terrorized her. Terrorized by the fact that it's nothing but a fleeting hope...identical to the one she had experienced on her way to his penthouse that famous evening.

  
That famous night when her world had collapsed again...

  
This penthouse plunged into darkness...darkening, swallowing in the darkness their bonds. Their common future. A future that she had ardently desired. And that she thought desired by Lucifer. Was she wrong that much about him? Really? Was all this tragedy due to a misinterpretation of the signs by Chloe?

  
No.

  
She hadn't imagine all this. Impossible. She was certain. Lucifer wanted all this. If not more than she, much sooner than she. He had never hidden it, by the way. Then...what? Why had he run away like this?

  
Because it was a flight for the detective. An abandonment. Cowardice. Nothing led her to believe otherwise. She wanted to believe otherwise. But... How to believe in him again? How to understand without any explanation? Without any sign? Chloe wanted to understand... sincerely. She wanted a plausible explanation for his sudden disappearance. A valid reason... possibly forgivable. It was on this purpose that she had made all necessary effort to find him and bring him by the skin of his arse to Los Angeles.  
A new defeat which had affected her for six long months. Significantly intensifying the pain of his absence. It was as if he had vanished beyond the borders of the city. Chloe had a slight hope at first, having easily spotted his car on the outskirts of L.A. A false trail. She should have known it. As he had suspected that she would pursue him relentlessly. Not a suspicion : a conviction that she would hunt him down. He knew her, as she had thought knowing him. Lucifer had abandoned his luxury corvette in a garage at the border, leaving behind him the last element capable of identifying him. The detective had also focused her research on her partner's pronounced likes for places and activities inciting lust. Las Vegas had appeared to her as an obvious stop on his flight.

  
And yet...

  
No sign of him there. Nothing. Not a trace of his typical and public exaggerations. He hadn't stayed at any hotel, nor rented a flashy car there. No one had recognized Lucifer anywhere – the young woman had provided a picture and description of the police's search systems, unique to the character -, nor in Las Vegas, Los Angeles or any other city in the state.

  
Chloe had to face it : Lucifer didn't wish to be found.

  
Not by her, at least.

  
Disappointed, destitute...the young woman had turned to her roommate, the latter having an inexplicable ability to fin anyone who didn't wish to. A gift that could have proved very useful in Lucifer...But... Once again...Only disappointment awaited her at the end of this track. A disappointment that also affected Mazekeen. She hadn't managed to find him on her own, whatever her techniques of investigation, techniques that Chloe didn't really want to know in detail. According to Maze, tracking Lucifer was... different. The detective couldn't well get out more. Information that wasn't really one and that had the knack for increasing by four the number of questions constantly torturing her brain. Questions accompanied with certainties, however.

  
Maze knew something.

  
She was convinced of it. Some embarrassed reactions and mimicry of the young woman couldn't deceive her. She knew the reason for Lucifer's precipitate departure, or at least a part of it. It was more than certain. She knew and didn't say anything to her, in spite of her incessant entreaties and harassments during these long months. Nothing had filtered from the mouth of her stubborn roommate. Why were these answers so difficult to provide?

  
Chloe only wanted to understand...

  
Why had he run away? What was he running away from? She? Why? What could she have done wrong? Had she said something or...?

  
These same questions swirled relentlessly in her mind. Day and night. Hour by hour. They remained there...unanswered. Devoid of a salutary understanding. She deserved answers. He owed it to her. He should had given her answers.

  
He should have stayed.

  
Chloe squeezed the mobile phone into her hands, rubbing the opaque screen with her thumb. Why had he called? After all this time... Why tonight? Was he okay? She knew it was him on the line. How... She wouldn't have been able to explain it. She knew it... that's all. An instinctive certitude, incontestable. He didn't need to talk... His silence spoke easily for him. It spoke much more than mere words. Chloe had felt in her the distress that gripped him... His uncertainties. He looked so...vulnerable on the line. Why? Chloe looked at her alarm clock on the black wooden bedside table.

One quarter to one...

  
The detective dialed a new phone number and carried the device in her ear, tapping the blanket with her fingertips until someone picked it up. What finally happened after a dozen tones.

  
**_"Hello..._** ", muttered a sleepy voice.

  
" Ella, this is Chloe. Are you still at the precinct? ", asked the latter, throwing the blankets back with an ample gesture.

  
" **_Unfortunately yes.._**.", complained the coroner.

  
Chloe could easily see her yawning on the phone and slowly rub her obstinately closed eyes. She got out of bed and began to pace up and down while asking her colleague:  
" I'll need some information as soon as possible! It's about Lucifer...", she specified slightly lower.

  
The simple utterance of this name soon made exhilarate the young woman on the line, the latter answering in a voice much more alert :  
**_"Shoot ! I'm ready! "_**

  
" I would like you to plot the position of a cell phone. I give you the number...", said Chloe, scrolling the incoming calls on her phone.

  
She hung up a few minutes later, Ella having told her to do as quickly as possible to find the requested information, recalling her as soon as possible. She looked around, her gaze passing from her alarm clock to her unmade bed. What to do now? Wait wisely for the information while Lucifer could use this time to run away one more time? She couldn't stay in her room without doing anything. Not after this phone call. Not with that fire that was pulsing again in her chest. That burning hope. Almost uncomfortable.

  
No way.

  
The young woman walked quickly to the door of her room. She went out into the corridor plunged into the darkness at this late hour. Only her steps smothered by the carpet disturbed the nocturnal silence in the apartment. She crossed the corridor as quickly as possible – not wishing to awaken Trixie in the middle of the night – and stopped in front of a door. A door she still hesitated to cross. Not for fear of the person being there, but rather for fear of stumbling upon strange and potentially dangerous objects once inside. In eight months of co-location, Chloe hadn't entered Maze's room once. She hadn't really sought to enter it, preferring to remain in a comfortable doubt as to the arrangement of her private space. Better not be too curious for some things.

  
The detective stroked the handle with her palm before opening the door as silently as possible. She entered and turned again to the door to close it. Chloe turned around and discovered in amazement the inside of this room, which had hitherto been haloed with mysteries. She was quite surprised. Nothing suggested a room as much...banal. She was almost disappointed not to see a whole arsenal of terrifying knives and others white weapons proudly lined up against the walls of the room. Almost disappointed.  
The bedroom was even decorated with a certain taste. In spite of the surrounding darkness, Chloe could appreciate the soothing lilac hues on the walls of the room, the latter disgusted with all disturbing weapons. A few paintings decorated the walls by the window, paintings by artists that she didn't know herself but which translated a real talent. She who expected to land in a room with the infernal pace found rather in the middle of a dream marshmallows. Everything was perfectly in its place, not an ounce of bad taste. She even seriously thought of asking for advice for the rest of the apartment. Who would have believe it? The Terrifying and Relentless Maze Bounty Hunter... A peerless decorator? Unlikely denominative. And yet... Expensive furniture, decorative objects perfectly adapted without forgetting an irreproachable cleanliness. Yeah... It was probably a dream. Or the effect of darkness...Yeah, it must have been that.

  
Chloe ceased to admire the disposition of the space to move gently towards her roommate's bed. The latter turned her back on her, sleeping deeply on the flank. She drew closer to Maze, stretching a hand to her shoulder to gently wake her up. An ineffectual attempt, since Mazekeen had turned to her – much too quickly for anyone of so little human nature -, placing the cold, dangerously sharp blade of a dagger to her throat, hidden under her pillow so far. The young brunette had moved in a blink of an eye, threatening Chloe of this blade with surgical precision. The detective stiffened and held back a scream of terror at the icy contact of the blade against her carotid artery. She who almost regretted the presence of knives in her crazy roommate's room. She'd thought too quickly. Much too fast. She swallowed, the blade pressing more against her neck at each swallowing, under Mazekeen's sharp eyes.

  
" Why are you in my room?! ", murmured the latter with her crazy hair and quite mad.

  
" Why do you have a knife under your pillow?! ", asked Chloe in turn, the knife still under her throat.

  
Maze moved back a few millimeters from the threatening blade of her throat without lowering her arm, squinting in the darkness. She scrutinized Chloe's face, divided between irritation and something else. It was better that Chloe didn't know the exact nature of this thing.

  
" My question is much more relevant than yours, Chloe! ", replied her roommate after a few seconds of silence.

  
" I highly doubt it... Would you have forgotten that there's an eight-year-old girl in this apartment?! ", Chloe reprimanded her, rather anxious with a knife under her throat. " What are you going to do?! Slaughtering her mother in the middle of the night and hiding the body in the garden?! "

  
Maze shrugged her shoulders, seeming to judge Chloe's words.

  
" No...not tonight... Besides, I like these sheets. Blood is very difficult to clean up! ", argued Maze.

  
" I would be sorry for staining your beautiful sheets with my blood, Maze...", muttered the detective sharply. " So... If you'd just lower this knife and put it away before Trixie could see it...! "

  
Mazekeen rolled her eyes before lowering the threatening knife away from Chloe and her throat. This last closed her eyes and let out a brief sight of relief, her whole body till then stretched to the icy sensation of the blade against her epidermis.

  
" It's a little late to worry...She's already seen it. She even rather good with a knife, this little one! ", Maze pointed out as she slid the dagger under her pillow.

  
Chloe stared at her without saying anything during a brief moment, gradually absorbing the words she had just heard and trying to make sense of them. A rationality. Her eight-years-old... daughter... knives... She opened her mouth, many admonitions threatening to get out at any moment. She closed her eyes, pressing her lips together, pointing a finger between her and Mazekeen. She had to calm down. Don't choke her by using her pillow. Even though the idea was terribly tempting: the perfect murder. There were no witnesses around,so... No! She had to focused on the most important thing, even if the idea of seeing her daughter juggling the terrifying knives of her roommate placed itself before the list of problems to be settled.

  
"We'll... see that... later...", said the detective very slowly, struggling with all her strength against this tempting desire to murder.

  
Maze sighed in turn loudly while slumping against her pillow with a surly face. She glared at the young woman, apparently irritated to be thus awakened in the middle of the night. It must be said that Chloe wasn't equally excited about threats with bladed weapons at such an advanced hour of the night. She would have preferred to avoid this type of inconvenience.

  
" And why not in the morning?! ", suggested her roommate in a dry tone, lightning bolts shooting out of her eyes towards Chloe. " You know... when people don't sleep! "

  
The detective pinched her lips more strongly than before. She drove once more the irrepressible urge to jump on Maze and stifle her with her pillow, deeply expiring the air of her lungs to calm down. She wasn't there for that. Still clutching her cell phone in her left hand, she showed it to Maze. This last gauged the device, puzzled. She frowned and stared at the young woman standing in front of her.

  
" Yes...I've already seen a cell phone, Chloe...Thanks and good night! ", she said in a flat voice before folding the blanket over her head, her whole body forming a domed mass beneath the sheet.

  
" He called...", merely murmured Chloe to the domed mass of her roommate.

  
This last didn't move, unfazed. She tried again, striving to be clearer :  
" _Lucifer_ called..."

  
That simple sentence succeeded in extirpating Maze from under the cover, alert and totally awake. She straightened up on her bed with a sharp gesture, sitting on it and clutching the detective's shoulders with both hands. She shook her like a plum tree while questioning her on the contents of the call :

  
" When?! Is he okay?! Why did he call you and not me?! Where is he?! What...?! "

  
"M... Ma... ze! St... op shak... ing me l... ike t...that!! ", managed to more or less articulate Chloe between two violent jolts.

  
She obeyed, releasing her embrace around the young woman's shoulders and pulling back on her bed. Chloe rubbed her shoulders with one hand, bruised by Mazekeen's tenacious grasp. She was astonished as not feeling more dizzy than that, Maze having put considerable force into these incessant shakes. She sighed before answering as precisely as possible the previous questions of her roommate:

  
" He called barely ten minutes ago. I don't know if he's okay... He didn't say anything but I know it's him, Maze! I'm sure of it! I think he needs help. I don't know why he called me and not you, you'll ask him when we'll find him... because we will find him! I asked Ella to triangulate his position by his cell phone..."

  
She was interrupted in her tirade by an insistent vibration against her palm. Chloe picked up and carried the device to her ear, moving away from the bed and turning her back to Maze.

  
" Decker...", she said mechanically.

  
" **_Hi! This is Ella! I could triangulate his position. He's in... San Francisco! In a motel...the...Candy's! It's located north of the city, I send you the details on your phone!_** ", informed her colleague, much more awake than the previous call.

  
" Thank you so much, Ella. I'll be in touch! ", quickly thanked the detective before hanging up, turning to Maze.

  
This last was no longer in her bed, already standing and dressed near it. Mazekeen slipped on her leather jacket and grabbed her knife under the pillow to slip it into her black boot. A real spy. Or a hired killer. Chloe hesitated between both, truth to tell.

  
" I guess it means that you're coming with me? ", implied Chloe.

  
" Why are you still in pajamas ?! Hurry up! ", Maze said, grabbing other things in a drawer, which the detective didn't want to identify for the moment.

  
This last smiled softly at her roommate's admonitions. Now she was being yelled. But she couldn't blame her. She understood only too well the frenzy which had seized Mazekeen. A frenzy that was also rumbling in her since that call. His call. They had to move. Fast.

  
" Go waking up Trixie, please and WITHOUT knives or any other sharp object... thanks! ", she saw fit to specify.

  
Maze nodded, coming out quickly of her room and heading to the little one, leaving Chloe alone. This last quickly dialed a new number as new questions stifled every viable part of her mind.

  
What was he doing in San Francisco? Why there? Why had he stayed around Los Angeles? If he wanted to leave...Leaving the state was a much more effective maneuver. Had he been there all this time? So close... for the past six months. So close... and so far away. An observation that reminded her of this well-know quotation : "Out of sight... Out of mind". Was that their case? Was Chloe concerned near or far by this banal quotation? She wouldn't have been able to answer with certainty, herself not knowing exactly what she had experiences since those long months of absence. Everything was confused and extremely clear at once. She wouldn't have any answer on her own. And it was more than time to have some.

  
She waited for Dan to pick up, again pacing the roommate's room, imprecise whispers coming from the dark corridor. The hoarse and drowsy voice of her ex-husband finally sounded in her ear after a few seconds.

  
**_" Espinoza..."_ **

" Dan, this is Chloe! ", she said quickly as she walked back to her room.

  
**_" Chloe? Do you know what time is it?! What's going on? Is Trixie okay?_ ** ", he almost immediately worried.

  
Chloe came to her room, closing the door behind her while reassuring Dan:  
" She's perfectly fine, don't worry. I'm not calling you for that...I...I found him! "

  
There was a silence on the line. No questions. No request for clarification. Dan knew perfectly well who she was talking about. He knew her sufficiently to deduce the reason for this call and to understand its importance. He understood Chloe's need. Without any questioning at this subject. She rummaged in her wardrobe near the window looking for clothes to put on, pulling out black jeans and a sky blue sweater ragged at the bottom. She heard her ex-husband grow a slight sigh on the line as she released her jogging with a foot gesture, squirming on the spot.

  
**_" I'll be there in ten minutes..._** ", he simply informed her.

  
Chloe stopped squirming in all directions to strengthen her grip around her phone. She was moved by the immediate reaction of her former spouse. By his immediate availability. She smiled softly before saying in a whisper :

  
" Thank you, Dan...Really..."

  
" **_I'm on my way...See you soon._** ", he just said before hanging up.

  
The young woman threw her phone on the unmade bed and slipped her top as quickly as possible, bringing her blond hair back afterwards.

  
She must hasten. San Francisco...Six hours drive by car, if not more. They would be lucky if Lucifer would still be there. Very lucky. This was no longer the case for six months. She had nothing positive without him. She still doubted that seeing him again would include any... positive results. Not right away at least. All this didn't depend solely on her but on him. Both of them. Mazekeen stepped into her room – upset -as she quickly cropped her hair into a rough braid.

  
" Your daughter dresses much faster than you...And it's not a compliment! ", she remarked in a dull tone.

  
The detective didn't respond, looking in the drawer of her bedside table her gun and her holster. She hung it at her belt under Maze's wrathful look.

  
" Dan is on his way to pick up Trixie...", informed the young woman while storing her gun in her holster. " We've got a long drive ahead of us, Maze. It'll take us at least six hours to reach San Francisco..."

  
" Too long! He'll already be away and you know it! ", this last strongly interrupted her.

  
" What I also know is that I have no plane on hand! Do you?! ", the detective got mad by putting on her shoes.

  
Maze was silent for a few seconds, seeming to think at full speed while Chloe tried to tie these shoes as quickly as possible, a task made complicated by her constant nervousness and her desire to join Lucifer. She understood her roommate's frustration. She also wanted to get there as soon as possible. It wasn't possible. She watched Mazekeen rummaged through the pockets of her jacket ad take out her own cell phone. She dialed a number under the perplexed gaze at the detective.

  
" Who are you calling? ", this last asked her.

  
" Someone who has a plane on hand...Come on! We only have a few hours in front of us! ", said the young woman before going out of the room, leaving Chloe alone with new questions.

  
Who...of all her more or less suspicious contacts could have a plane at this hour and so quickly? Chloe sighed softly before going around the bed: dis she really want to know? No. There was only one thing she eagerly wished to know. An answer that no one else could give her except Lucifer. An answer she had been watching for six months. She picked up her beige trench coat on her desk chair and approached the door, grabbing the handle to close behind her.

  
They were finally going to have this conversation. A conversation postponed. A wait that had lasted too long.

  
They'll talk.

  
Whether he likes it or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fandom youtube that you should watch : Lucifer & Chloe/ Until you come back home from Always 108


	4. Inhuman

Half past one...

  
Why did everything look extremely slow? Even this private jet supposed to bring them in record time to him seemed... spineless. Nothing was going fast enough, except the stream of her thoughts. Chloe looked with apprehension at the hour indicated by her watch: thirty-one past one. They were in this plane for an hour, the journey requiring the maximum one hour and thirty to reach their destination. Another thirty minutes before touching the mainland. Before getting closer to him. To approach a semblance of answer.

  
Thirty minutes.

  
Wait much too long.

  
She waited... was going round in circles for six months. This extra delay was just... unbearable now. Unsustainable. She was so close... so close to have answers to her questions... so close to finally having the opportunity to understand the reasons of his departure.

  
So close and yet... so far away.

  
Every minute separating her from this city...from this motel... from Lucifer... left a chance for the latter to flee again. Each minute significantly increased the gap between them. Increasing in the same way the incessant buzz of questions and uncertainties whirling in her mind. What if he was already gone? How to find him? Would she loose his trace once more? What if she finally found him? What to say? Where to start? The blames? The explanations? Just...say nothing?

  
No.

  
That...she just can't do this. She couldn't know how she would react in front of him. In the flesh. Not a memory. Lucifer...in front of her. There was so much...rancor, resentment between them now. Before she even had a real opportunity to see him again. She hoped, too. What exactly? Chloe wasn't quite sure. Coherent answers, for starters... understandable ones. Even a minimum. Apologies...maybe. And...a confirmation. Let him confirm that she was in no way the cause of his precipitate departure. That their story wasn't involved.

  
Let him make this pain in her chest disappear. This sorrow that hadn't left her for six months.

  
Chloe mechanically rubbed her palm against the leather of the seat where she was sitting, staring at the nocturnal landscape through the aircraft window without really seeing it. She stopped this mechanical movement after a few seconds, rolling up her sleeve and took an umpteenth look at her watch. An exasperated sigh accompanied her frenzied gesture and Chloe raised her head to Mazikeen, seated in front of her. The latter gave her an angry look before exclaiming with spite:

  
" Chloe...If you look this watch again...I swear I'll strangle you! "

  
The detective drew quickly on her sleeve, hiding the object responsible for the fury of her roommate. She sank back into her seat, sheepish, apologizing:

  
" Sorry. It's just th..."

  
A brief jerk travelled the whole plane, shaking undoubtedly due to some turbulence, interrupting the young woman. Maze jumped in her seat, clenching her jaws tightly and clasping the leather armrests of the chair with her hands, almost tearing the materiel with her nails. Chloe stared at her, dubious, stiffening more to the shock of a new air jolt.

  
" You're okay? ", inquired the latter, intrigued.

  
Mazekeen nodded briefly to reply, still firmly clinging to her seat, her features strained. Another turbulence shook the private jet, accentuating the body stiffness of the young brown woman under the blindsided glare of her friend.

  
" You're sure? ", the detective insisted . " You don't really seem...comfortable. "

  
" I hate planes...What a great idea to invent such a thing to move! ", Maze mumbled lip-tightly, the latter closely tightened by the tension that seemed to inhabit her since the beginning of the shocks.

  
Chloe found rather strange that a woman like Mazekeen such...intrepid was scared by planes. It didn't stick at all with her badass image. And it was probably for that reason that her roommate had been careful to not mention it. That was understandable. No one likes to share his phobias – ridiculous or not – with others. Even less Maze. The young woman therefore refrained from any comment, unwilling to give a new pretext to her friend to strangle her. She stopped glaring at the latter to let her eyes go astray on what surrounded her. This jet was very luxurious. Of those we only see on the cinema. The seats were more comfortable...Materialized fleece clouds. A design bar occupied the bottom of the plane, not far from the door. Every part of the furniture, every object...shouted only one thing: luxury.

  
" Who did you threaten to find a plane at this hour? ", the detective asked, rubbing the leather of the chair with her fingertips.

  
She took a suspicious look at her roommate, who only answered with a vague shrug of the shoulders. A new shake made her shudder, her fine fingers gripping the leather armrests with angrily before she deigned to inform Chloe about the man or woman possessing this luxurious plane:

  
" I didn't threaten anyone...Not really. I just reminded this blonde bitch how much she owed Lucifer..."

  
_A blonde bitch_...That meant nothing for Chloe. Who could that much owe Lucifer to prepare a flight in the middle of the night? Without compensation, moreover? Was she one of those people who once asked her former partner for a favor? A person who simply paid off her debt? This debt was surely substantial in this case. A debt that was more than welcome right now. Without this plane, the chances of finding him before he left again would have been slim. Tiny. Nearly non-existent, even. The blonde bitch's help was providential...If they arrived on time.

  
Once again, she stroke – over the fabric of her sleeve – the rigid surface of the watch on her wrist, her gaze losing itself in the nocturnal landscape offered by the aircraft window on her left.

  
" We'll find him...", Mazekeen said.

  
Chloe stopped rubbing her watch, focusing her attention on her roommate. Maze, still firmly clinging to her seat, looked at her with infallible determination. The young woman's lack of determination. A determination purged of doubts...of uncertainties. Chloe also wished to be rid of it... Be able to say with a truly certainty that everything would be fine. That everything would go back to normal. She really wished to be inhabited by this boundless conviction which never left her roommate. She wanted to find him...to confront him. Just...see him again.

  
" Yeah...", the detective whispered, rubbing her thumb more slowly against her watch. " We'll find him."

 

\-------------------------

 

Chloe clasped her hands on the dashboard, clinging as best as she could to this one, her heart drumming fiercely against her ribcage. She didn't want to die so stupidly! Her heart missed an umpteenth beat at the umpteenth turn taken at a mind-blowing seed – according to her – by her roommate. A turn perfectly controlled, she had to admit, but nevertheless frightening and dangerous for their health. She tightened her fingers more on the dashboard, frightened by this irresponsible driving. Maze took a new turn, Chloe bumping against the passenger window under the kinetic effect imposed on the car and on her body.

  
" Maze...", she articulated in a tense voice. " Slow down! I really would like to arrive in one single piece at the motel..."

  
In response, her roommate pressed the accelerator pedal, Chloe being strongly wedged against her seat by the significant increase in speed of the vehicle. She barely distinguished the nocturnal landscape offered by San Francisco at the advanced stage of the night, which was copiously deformed by the speed effect. How did Mazekeen perfectly control the driving of this car at such a speed? Lucifer was certainly not the only one to have an irresponsible driving...

  
" And I'd like to arrive on time! ", retorted her friend, clutching the shift lever before taking another turn, the heart of the detective again missing a beat at this bold maneuver.

  
The latter didn't add. Maze was right, in a way. They clearly had no time to scrupulously comply with the highway code. Therefore, she set aside her professional scruples towards the regulation and the safety of pedestrians to grab any surface od the car: gestures highly vital to survive. They would talk about the highway code another time.

  
After more deadly turns than the detective could decently count in her current state of fright, Maze slowed down at last. A slowing down that also decreased her panicked heartbeats. She slowed down until she stopped the vehicle in front of the motel so desired, shutting the engine. Chloe finally loosened her fingers on the dashboard, closing her eyes and strongly inspiring air through her nose. She swallowed, exhaling deeply through her mouth, before grabbing the handgrip on the passenger side with a slightly trembling hand.

  
Never.

  
She would never let them drive again. Maze and Lucifer were real public dangers behind a wheel.

  
_Never._

  
She swore it.

  
She opened the car door, coming out of a trembling and unsteady gait of the vehicle and closing with a blow behind her. She raised her head, examining the motel in front of her. The dirt kingdom would have been a more... appropriate denomination. This place was a real dump. And she only saw the outside, the interior of the rooms must certainly have been in a most lamentable state. She examined – puzzled - the yellowish, peeling structure surrounding the dilapidated staircase leading to the rooms on the first floor. The white paint of the facades was more... greyish, actually, the painting being covered with some colorful and suggestive graffiti.

  
Six months.

  
Six months to live...here. Lucifer...here. How was that even possible? Why? Why do such a thing, him who was so...him? He had money. The detective didn't understand. And perhaps there were nothing to understand... or too much. The more she looked at the dilapidated building, the more her confusion grow. How could Lucifer have lived here for six months? Why did he inflict this to himself?

  
She stopped staring at the motel building to approach Maze, the latter nonchalantly leaning against the front of the car. She spotted – on the left of the staircase with uncertain strength – a building isolated from the others. Smaller. Probably the reception. Maze straightened up quickly, urged to find her former boss and friend.

  
" So? What do we do? ", she asked, impatient. " We break the doors one by one to find him? "

  
Chloe hesitated before answering. Maybe it was an attempt at humor? No...Of course not. That was Mazekeen. Of course, she was serious. The detective came closer to her friend, stopping at her side to contemplate once more the filthy floor where the doors were. She pinched her lips, pretending to seriously weight the pros and cons, leaning her head slightly on the side as she crossed her arms against her chest.

  
" Mmmhhh... Tempting! ", she finally said. " ** _Or_**... We could question this guy.", she said casually, pointing fingers at the isolated building on the left.

  
Maze stared at the men visible from where they were, the latter half-slumped against the foul green counter, waiting for new customers. She said nothing a few seconds before shrugging and pulling out a huge knife from the back of her jacket. The blade was probably more than fifteen centimeters. Chloe jumped briefly at the sight of this impressive bladed weapon as her roommate made a step toward the reception. The detective grabbed her arm, exclaiming:

  
" What do you think you're doing with this?! And...H...How did y.... Where were you hiding this knife?! ", she asked genuinely intrigued, took a puzzled look at the back of her bellicose friend's jacket.

  
" What?! ", the latter got upset. " You said we had to question him, right? "

  
Chloe strongly pinched her lips, briefly closing her eyes before placing herself in front of Maze, palms in the air towards her. She opened her eyes, demanding with firmness:

  
" Just... Let me do this, will you? "

  
Maze looked at her before shrugging her shoulders again, indifferent, and putting away her deadly blade in her curious dorsal hiding place. Chloe sighed softly, lowering her arms along her sides and nodding to her friend. She walked to the front door, Mazekeen following her closely. She looked with disgust at the black and white checkered tiles covered with unidentified dirt, her heels sticking tightly with every step taken towards the counter. She walked over it, tickling at the sight of an enormous mouse in the right corner of the room, not far from a vending machine. She examined the man – in his 40s – slumped behind the counter and absorbed by reading a magazine. Chloe saw a small copper bell in front of her and gently patted on it, hoping to draw attention of the receptionist to the state of awakening little quantifiable. The latter didn't move an inch, except to slowly turn a page of his magazine, merely mumbling in a grave and pasty voice:

  
" We're full. "

  
Chloe highly doubted it, doubt shared by her roommate who mumbled a few words in her back: " _...miracle!_ ". For her part, the detective simply tatting the little bell insistently and continuously until the receptionist finally deigned to give her a minimum of attention. The latter finally raised his head towards her, his features distorted by a tenacious weariness, his long black hair falling around his grumpy face. She offered him her most charming smile while showing him her badge.

  
" We're not here for a room. Have you seen this man? ", she asked him while showing him a picture of Lucifer.

  
He looked at the picture before vaguely shrugging his shoulders, pressing his cheek against his squat hand.

  
" Frank?...'been here for six months. 'Don't have to complain about him. He paid cash on the nail each week! If you knew how many people leave without let anything...", he said with consternation.

  
_Franck_. He changed his name. Of course. It was logical and clever from him. The fact that he took this name as his was... unexpected and amply understandable to her. Franck Lawrence... the only priest having found thanks to her partner's eyes. His deceased friend. This man of faith who had respected him... listened to him. Yeah... She perfectly understood this choice.

  
" Could you give me the number of his room? ", the young woman asked urgently, her heart pounding again vigorously at the same pace as the hope pulsing in her mind.

  
The limp straightened up a little, scratching the back of his skull for a moment before informing the latter:

  
" You've just missed him, m'lady! He returned his keys fifteen minutes ago."

  
The hope that she felt warm inside her quickly melted away, Chloe's features sagging under defeat. She squeezed her partner's picture in her fingers, staring at his static features on this trivial image as a huge pain permeated every fiber of her body.

  
" Having said...", added the receptionist, looking over detective's shoulder. " His car's still here. Maybe he's still around here somewhere. "

  
Chloe raised her haid strongly, full of hope, leaning more towards the man slumped against the counter and promptly asking :

  
" You know where he could have gone? "

  
Maze approached her, the young woman feeling her presence at her side as the receptionist seemed to think long about the possible places where Lucifer might be.

  
" Mmmmhhh... I know he sometimes gets into bars in the middle of the night. He's insomniac...", he mumbled after a time.

  
Maze let out an angry whistle before violently planting the sharp point of her blade in the green counter, the man jumping sharply and taking a panicked look at the two women.

  
" **_Where?!_** ", her friend spat in a threatening tone, clutching the handle of her weapon.

  
Chloe sighed at the... direct approach of her roommate without reprimanding her. Even if it wasn't really civilized, Mazikeen could quickly achieve a result. And she also had enough of the monotonous digressions of this individual. She fixed her piercing glance on the latter, waiting for a clear and precise answer from him.

  
He stammered, trembling with fear:

  
" There are two bars where he used to go! The first is two blocks in this direction: **_Old Oak's_**...", he said, pointing to the street adjacent to it. " the o-other is south of the city, n-not far from the stadium! 'Know nothing more... I-I s-wear! "

  
Maze abruptly pulled the blade out of the cracked wood and offered a predatory smile to the receptionist, the latter huddling up, frightened. She then turned to the detective, the two women exchanging a look before Chloe moved away from the counter and said:

  
" Thank you... for your cooperation. "

  
They went out of the building together, stopping near the car, Maze putting away her weapon in her jacket while Chloe was looking towards the street indicated earlier.

  
" We'd better split up. ", she suggested, turning to her roommate, closing the sides of her trench coat as a fine rain fell from the night sky. " I'll go to Old Oak's and you can check the stadium... I'll call you if I find him. "

  
Maze nodded before taking a seat in the car, starting at full speed in the deserted street and quickly disappearing from the sight of the young woman. Chloe also moved away from the motel, eager to find him.

  
Finally.

  
They had a chance.

  
One single chance.

 

\-------------------------------

 

Chloe pulled away some wet wisps taunting her vision with her hand before looking at the illuminated sign above the door.

  
Old Oak's.

  
It was the bar indicated by the receptionist. She stood in front of that door, a sweet music still filtering across this barrier, undecided. Anxious, above all. She rubbed her hand nervously against her trench coat, wet by the insistent rain. She had to come in. It was ridiculous to stay in front of this dammed door without getting answers to her questions.

  
What was she afraid of?

  
Of seeing him again? That was what she hoped, right? That's why she came here. Find him... Talk to him. Was that the source of the problem? This...postponed discussion for far too long? This succession of unspoken?

  
Chloe tightly clamped the fabric of her trench coat with her hands, a quiet anger suddenly heating her body. Why did she feel this anxiety? She got nothing to worry about! Nothing! He was the only one to blame... He was the only one responsible for this disaster!

  
She inhaled deeply, drawing into this latent rage before opening the door and rushing inside. She passed the entrance all to arrive in the main room In-lieu of bar. A welcoming place...cheerful. The exact opposite of what pleased her partner. An authentic meeting place, quite similar to the bar where her colleagues used to meet at the end of the day. The same bar where Lucifer had promptly defended her honor. She observed the customers gathered there, mostly sitting at the tables and counter, laughing and friendly exclamations shooting here and there as she moved forward. The air was stifling, coated with the various alcoholic scents of the many drinks imbibed. She approached the counter, setting against a corner partly hidden by a carved wooden pillar, scrutinizing the room intensely.

  
Seeking Lucifer.

  
And she saw him.

  
A vision that froze every inch...every living cell...every meninge of her organism.

  
He was here.

  
Chloe firmly clutched the corner, unable to take her eyes off this man she had been seeking for a very long time. All rage...All resentment quickly diverged in her to be replaced by a genuine dismay.

  
What the hell happened to him?

  
She watched at her former partner sat and half slumped against a piano not far from the exit door, in the center of the room. Surrounded by many jovial customers and yet...alone in the world. Isolated from the world.

  
Lonely.

  
A shadow.

  
Chloe had before her a shadow. A sketch of Lucifer. This jovial and frustrating man in all circumstances didn't exist in this room. Here...Now...He was diametrically different. He emitted an extremely dark energy, an essence that painfully pricked the epidermis of the young woman, whether real or not...she felt so. She scrutinized him, trying by this analysis to rationalize Lucifer's disturbing state...knowing full well that she wouldn't succeed. She observed from her hiding place his profile, his features which had so much missed her. His features haunted her nights. His unruly black hair. His nascent beard contrasting with his skin of a disturbing pallor. These purple dark circles caressing the bottom of his dark eyes. Much darker than she remembered. This face so endearing in her memory, his face frozen...his features communicating a tension, an internal torture that she could never have suspected. She also observed his outfit...also the opposite of his habits. No more impeccable and overpriced suit. Just a basic, ragged black shirt, his sleeves rolled up revealing his forearms affixed again the black wood of the piano. Dark blue jeans...This entire getup only communicated simplicity. Nothing else. He absent-mindedly caressed his still-filled drink on the piano, lost in thought. Lost in the middle of this ambient hubbub.

  
Lost for too long.

  
Chloe didn't know what to do. She had come in...eager to fight with him, but...She could no longer dislodge her glance from Lucifer. So she stood there, rummaging frantically in her pocket while keeping an eye on him. She grabbed her phone and quickly send a message to Maze as low music tones resounded through the crowded room. The detective raised her head, intrigued. She saw Lucifer gently tap a few keys, his eyes still vague. Out of place. Out of time. It looked like he was playing mechanically...without really trying to compose a real melody. Yet...the scattered tones finally made a soft and heavy sound. As heavy as the mood of her partner, the latter finally stopping to caress his glass to play with both hands.   
Always alone with himself.

  
Insensitive to the people around him. Insensitive to their appreciation.

  
His voice...hoarse and weak sounded in the room.

  
Weak and yet...filing the room with ease.

  
**_I'm walking in this cloud_ **

  
**_In this cloud, upon love_ **

  
Chloe leaned against the pillar, unable to detach her gaze from him, caught by his voice...this vocal distress formulated in a desperate and magnificent music.

  
**_But still I feel this doubts_ **

  
**_Feel this doubts, about us_ **

  
He was playing with grace, despite this sadness...this distress she could feel in him, around him. He sang and played without deigning to raise his head towards the other people. He was playing...only for him. Only for her.

  
**_I'm walking in this cloud_ **

  
**_In this cloud, upon love_ **

  
He played with more vigor, the bass tones resonating with more force in the room while keeping to sing also more strongly.

  
**_This road can't be mine, can't be mine_ **

  
**_Giving it up, ooooooh_ **

  
**_Giving it up, giving it up_ **

  
Once again, more bass tones were played with his perfectly agile fingers while he was singing in a much more powerful voice, his gaze still fixed on the keys.

  
**_Stand down, drop these weapons now_ **

  
**_We're walking in this lie, walking in this lie_ **

  
**_You know I try, try to compromise_ **

  
**_We're walking in this high, walking in this high_ **

  
He didn't sing. Lucifer talked to her. He talked to Chloe through this music, through this words. She was hit hard by each word, each intonation...striking precisely her being...her heart. He was begging. Begging for forgiveness. He softened his voice, muttering:

  
**_We are pushed back and down_ **

  
**_I'm out of my mind otherwise_ **

  
**_We are pushed and fallen down_ **

  
**_Into this ground and space_ **

  
**_Giving it up, ooooh_ **

  
**_Giving it up, giving it up_ **

  
No. She refused. Categorically. She won't give up. Never. And he neither.

  
**_Stand down, drop these weapons now_ **

  
**_We're walking in this lie, walking in this lie_ **

  
**_You know I try, try to compromise_ **

  
**_We're walking in this high, walking in this high_ **

  
He played with rage, no more speech coming out from his mouth. That would have been superfluous. These powerful tones...those tones that made the air vibrate talked far more than futile words. One last time, Lucifer sang the chorus:

  
**_Stand down, drop these weapons now_ **

  
**_We're walking in this lie, walking in this lie_ **

  
**_You know I try, try to compromise_ **

  
**_We're walking in this high, walking in this high_ **

  
**_In this high, walking in this high_ **

  
The silence received these last murmured words, her partner playing with extreme softness the last music notes. He lowered his hand against his thigh, lost in thought as many enthusiastic exclamations or congratulations fell on either side of the room. Lucifer paid no attention to it, finally straightening up and slowly walking towards the emergency exit as the customers returned to their conversations. Chloe walked away from the counter and made her way through the crowd gathered around her, apologizing frequently for every bit of insistence from her. She finally reached the door, clutching the handle gently without advancing further.

  
Here she was.

  
Their moment.

  
Their reunion.

  
Was she ready for it? Was he?

  
There was only one way to find out.

  
Slowly, the detective opened the door, leaving only a few centimeters of opening to separate her from him. She went out without a sound, the icy breath of the nocturnal wing titillating her wet neck. She gently closed the door behind her and watched Lucifer strolling through the deserted cul-de-sac. He hadn't noticed yet her presence, his back to her as he tried to light a cigarette despite the incessant rain. Chloe swallowed and walked a few steps, stopping not far from a dumpster, plunged into darkness. The cul-de-sac was weakly enlightened, the artificial luminosity offered by the lampposts quivering regularly.

  
She remained here, undecided -once again - about haw to approach him after all this time.

  
She saw him stiffen in the partial darkness, raising his head strongly before him while pulling a long puff on his cigarette. Chloe instinctively stepped back behind the dumpster, puzzled. Lucifer continued to look at a point in front of him, still, each muscle stretched with suspicion.

  
" I know you're here...", he said in his low voice. " I'm not in the mood for hide-and-seek games tonight...Show yourself! "

  
The detective remained still, increasingly perplexed. He heard her. Why was he looking in front of him and not towards her, then? She gestured to get rid of her ridiculous hiding place when she heard a guttural laugh in the dark alley.

  
Feminine laugher.

  
Sweet and...

  
Inhuman. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song : Clouds -Elias   
> Fandom youtube 'really great) : Lucifer X you know I try from Joeyclauk 
> 
> Next chapter as soon as possible ( comments still appreciate as you know)


	5. What a wonderful coincidence

 

He thought at first of a banal physical discomfort.  

What else could it have been?  

After all, Lucifer was here...outside, sheltering summarily under the metallic structure of the back stairs from this torrential rain. Also protecting his precious cigarette from the elements. A fresh breeze accompanied the incongruous rain... the perfect culprit for this strange cooling sensation that went back slyly along his spine, wasn't it?  

This could explain that. Just like his deep physical fatigue. This stubborn exhaustion which never ceased to leave him for many weeks. Since his departure. Since... 

Lucifer didn't run of culprits to point the finger at this strange physical sensation.  

And yet... 

None was sufficiently plausible to him.  

Something was wrong. And not a little.  

But... What exactly?  

He stroked absently the smooth surface of his cigarette with his thumb. Slowly, he brought it to his lips, appreciating more the pungent taste of the damp tobacco along his palate before searching the inside of his pants pocket. For any outsider, Lucifer would simply had the appearance of a banal guy in the rain smocking just as simply a cigarette. It was his initial desire, indeed. Try to relax his mind, his body this tenacious habit. An envy... A gesture hiding henceforth the deep and complex investigation which inhabited him in this time. He pulled his lighter out of his pocket - his face still lowered in the direction of the ground, rendered moist by the nocturnal rain – apparently relaxed.  

Reality was quite different.  

Lucifer focused on each sensation, each sound...each suspicious movement around him. He listened to the icy rain sink gently along the staircase structure and end its race in a trough much denser and sonorous than its initial shape around him. The subtle wind blows against his skin. The weak echoes resonating inside the bar. He analyzed meticulously what surrounded him...what he felt...what he sensed.  

A presence.  

Not just any presence.  

Lucifer activated the lighter, lighting his cigarette with a perfectly feigned relaxation. He watched from the corner of his eye the shrill light of the lamppost on his right falter briefly, a nuisance of electrical origin equally brief accompanying this curious dysfunction.  

Thought...not so curious.  

He deeply inhaled a puff before slowly exhaling the smoke through his half-opened mouth, closing his eyes for a moment. An important moment. Once again, for any gullible human, Lucifer would had just appeared to relieve the pressure...to close his eyes to...relax or otherwise.  

Once again...It was quite the contrary.  

This moment...so short for anyone else... was much longer for him. A suspended moment of... _temporal_ notion. An almost infinite moment, responding only to him. Only him. Lucifer plunged into himself...losing himself in this disturbing physical sensation. This touch on his skin. This disturbing coldness. Confusing. This needle placed deep between his shoulder blades.  

This sensation... 

A sensation that wasn't unknown to him and which nevertheless...seemed to be significantly different from everything he had experienced.  

This...insidious pulsation...Powerful...vibrating the inside of his body.  

This pulsation... 

Before him.  

Lucifer opened his eyes, all comedy fading instantly to give way to an intense bodily tension. He stiffened, straightening his head and scrutinizing the space in front of him. A darkened area. Trivial.  

No.  

A threatening obscurity. Dangerous.  

Even for him.  

He took his cigarette between his fingers before exhaling a new puff, not taking his eyes off this unlighted area.  

" I know you're here...", he said wearily. " I'm not in the mood for hide-and-seek games tonight... Show yourself! " 

Only the repetitive contact of the rain onto the ground followed his request. For a second. A tiny second before a crystalline laugh with frigid intonations filled the alley. A familiar and...terrifying laugh.  

Lucifer was... _terrified_.  

He knew this voice... That laugh... A laugh he hadn't heard since...the beginning of times. And it was barely exaggerated! How...How was that possible? He saw... felt through all his pores... the walls in front of him, the air around him react to this presence. An echo of power... A silent wave disrupting these solid and impalpable structures, disrupting the Devil himself. Formerly Devil... 

The wave reverberated in his body, caressing his feet then sailing along his tense limbs. The electric light provided by the lamp post flinched once again, an equally electric roar and particularly unpleasant joining to this threatening laugh. The darkness before him was traversed by a...movement. Almost undetectable to the naked eye. For a human being. Not for him. The shadow area changed...was transformed, hiding...somebody. A delighted exclamation sprang up from the darkness,  quickly followed by some deliberately spaced applause.  

"Well...Well...Well...What a clever boy you are! ", a disembodied and strangely haunting voice raved about.  

Lucifer brought his cigarette to his lips, feigning once more the relaxation when his surprised – and highly undesirable – guest was revealed to him. Not a human being. Nor a demon...or an angel who is a stinker attached to his manipulative family. Even thought the family was more than represented here. Il all its...apocalyptic splendor.  

A face... A body... emerged form the darkness. A face he didn't expect to see again. That he would never have liked to see again. Once again, what he wanted was never respected by his family. The height of irony for the Lord of Hell...This night was like a nightmare. He examined this fine face with a pointed chin, her straight nose and her greyish skin...These almond-shaped eyes...These piercing red irises. This slim body wearing a lilac dress clasping her chest gracefully. This body...that wasn't really one. Could we speak of a body when there only existed a... _malleable_ envelope? A body, certainly...but devoid of flesh and blood. This body devoid of real legs. Rather...a sketch, a trace in the air. A body...a person whom he wasn't able to handle.  

Literally.  

Lucifer sighed long - feigning weariness as his heart drummed ferociously in his chest, responding to the intense fear provoked by this unwelcomed newcomer.  

" Eris...So _bad_ to see you! ", he exclaimed, acerbic.  

Eris threw back her long black hair – these strangely floating in the impalpable movements of her body – before offering him a broad smile.  

" Come on, Lucifer! No airs and graces between us, okay? You can call me _au_ _ntie_! ", proposed the latter in a jovial tone.  

 

********

 

 

Lucifer let out a mock exclamation following the familiar request of the goddess. A goddess supposed to be locked up forever in the Depths of Hell. A living and speaking atrocity – which greatly increased Lucifer's repulsion towards her, a mute horror was still more tolerable than the reverse after all – standing before him.  

Why? _How?!_  

He'd have liked to know!  

Lucifer remembered perfectly her imprisonment. Her banishment to Tartarus...The most remote...The most inviolable place of The Underworld. Even he – armed with all his demonic power – wouldn’t be able to release her from this prison. The rest of Hell looked like a playground compared to Tartarus...Even his **_P_** aternal ** _B_** astard had avoided this option for his adorable manipulative mother.  

What the hell was she doing here? On Earth? Here, before him? What does she want?  

" I'll pass, thanks...", he said, bringing his cigarette up to his lips.  

Eris tilted her head gently to the side, vaporous filaments to the various lilac shades gently swirling around her and stroking Lucifer's shoes as she displayed a sulky face. She crossed her arms against her chest, a gesture accompanied by another vaporous shudder around her.  

" What a nudge! ",  she said, shaking her head gently. " You could at least pretend to be glad to see me! "  

" Well...I'm rather _surprised_ to see you here! ", rectified the latter, watching every vaporous gesture of the goddess, on his guards. " Shouldn't you be...locked up somewhere? You know...in Tartarus? I shouldn't even be surprised at your coming here...", he complained. " Earth seems to be the popular base from all supernatural beings lately! First my brother, then your sister to finish with the Goddess of Discord! I came here to take some vacation but I should have stayed in Hell..."  

Indeed...If he had remained in Hell...None of this would have happened. All that...shit in his life.  

Chloe. Uriel's death... 

Staying in Hell would have saved him much inconvenience...starting with this one.  

The so-called problem shrugged her shoulders, her perfect black hair caressing her grayish bare shoulders. She faded briefly into a vague heap of smokes before re-materializing near the lamppost to the right of Lucifer, stroking the metal structure with a fingertip with a certain fascination into her gaze.  

" Well...", she began, turning to him. " You can't blame me to get some air after this endless captivity...This world is really fascinating! So...chaotic! ", she exclaimed, delighted.  

" I suppose it is...", mumbled Lucifer, squinting in distrust. " Speaking of your captivity, Eris...I'll have some questions about this...like...How come you're **_here_**?! " 

Eris smirked at him before disappearing back into a vaporous cloud. Lucifer stiffened, nervous, staring at the space around him before feeling a gentle pressure against his left shoulder. He slowly turned his head on this side, swallowing hard as his black eyes met the purple irises of his aunt. The latter caressed her nephew's shoulder with her palm, her black hair tickling the edge of his jaw as she approached her lips to his ear, sighing languorously:  

" Oh come on, Luci... With your extended experience...Don't you know that every woman has her little secrets? " 

Lucifer quickly freed himself from her embrace with a sudden movement of shoulders, Eris disappearing again before materializing in front of him – sitting on some wooden boxes – laughing out loud in response to his vivacious and angry gesture towards her. She brought back a few moving black locks behind her ear, containing her crystalline laugh as well as she could.  

" Ooow....Careful! He bites! ", she snarled.  

He gave her a hateful look before throwing his cigarette butt on the damp floor, crushing it under his heel while sharply retorting: 

" You're certainly not a woman, Eris. You're a goddess addicted to chaos and destruction...A goddess who has absolutely nothing to do here! Especially if the end is to mess with me like the rest of my family! Why don't you bother these degenerates while I continue my life on my own side, eh? "  

The goddess scrutinized him silently, to the delight of Lucifer. She materialized again before him, staring intensely at his face with a strange gleam in her eyes. Lucifer put his hands in his pockets, irritated by the situation.  

" It's true, then...", she whispered, delighted for some unknown reason. 

Lucifer arched an eyebrow, puzzled. What was she talking about? The surrounding air underwent an imperceptible fluctuation of matter, a fluctuation that tended more Lucifer as his aunt turned away from him while saying: 

" I'd heard that my dear sister was here...on Earth. And that you were no longer in good terms...What luck! Exactly what I needed! "  

" And? "; exclaimed Lucifer, intrigued. " What does all this have to do with you, anyway? "  

" ...With **_us_** , Lucifer! ", she rectified, caressing the base of her neck with her hand, her black hair swaying sickly all around her. " I can help you get your revenge... Our revenge! " 

He stared at her, perplexed, sketching a seductive smile towards him. What did she mean... _their_ revenge? What had she in mind?  

" What do you mean, Eris? ", he asked her.  

The latter smiled even more, sensing the question as a semblance of appreciation. She sketched a gesture of the hand to indicate her whole body, the goddess appearing suddenly distressed and irritated at something.  

" As you can see, I haven't yet regained... my power of yesteryear. ", she said in a plaintive voice, taking an annoyed look at the vaporous clouds at her feet...rather her vaporous feet.  

" Oh, no no no! I thought this disturbing smoke around you was due to bad weather, really! ", he replied seriously.  

The goddess made a sharp movement of the hand, bothered by his provocations, pursuing with more enthusiasm this time:  

" I have some score to settle with my sister and the rest of your family...as you have, obviously! We could...help each other, what do you think? Would the...Devil go for a small family punishment? ", she finished, stroking Lucifer's chest with her finger, her face a few inches from his.  

A vendetta.  

Punish them... 

Them.  

Her...and... ** _H_** _im_... 

Get justice for himself...Finally?  

No.  

No... 

All this was ridiculous. He would never get justice alongside Eris. She who only swore by chaos and destruction...justice wouldn't be in the lot.  

She was like all the others.  

Like the rest of those filthy bastards who had so skillfully destroyed his existence.  

She only wanted to use him at her advantage.  

Like a pawn.  

Lucifer Morningstar...The eternal pawn in family machinations.  

He'd had enough of all this.  

Lucifer felt the rage boil in his veins, irradiate his body... ignite his dark eyes in a flaming furnace. No matter how much fear this woman could inspire, it was nothing compared to the rage lying storied towards his family. Towards this constant manipulation against him.  

Did he seem so naïve?  

 _R_ _eally?_  

Lucifer gripped the goddess's wrist, the latter widening her eyebrows with amazement, and pushed her dryly before turning to the door of the bar.  

" Thanks, but no thanks...", he simply replied, taking a few slow steps towards the exit door below the metal staircase.  

He didn't care anymore. May she take revenge. May she destroy his **_F_** _ather_...his mother...his entire family. He didn't feel at all concerned with these craps. All these tricks and Machiavellians plans against the **_O_** _ld_ ** _M_** _an_...Revenge...whatever the name given to justify the illusory cravings of all these morons.  

He didn't want to be involved in this anymore.  

Never again.  

He heard Eris deeply sighing behind him.  

" What a shame...I really wanted to avoid this situation...", she complained.  

Lucifer turned to her, intrigued. Avoid what? His question...this question he was about to ask died on his lips. He scrutinizing the bottom of the cul-de-sac, devoid of any repugnant family presence. The goddess was gone.  

An absence of vaporous presence which didn't bode well.  

Lucifer turned to the door, stupefied at the sight of his aunt before him, the latter offering him a wicked smile before touching his torso with the tip of her finger. A simple touch and yet... without understanding how, Lucifer ended up unceremoniously against the wall a few meters from his initial position. A cry escaped him when the back of his skull brutally met the more than solid wall, an intense pain exploding at the level of his neck.  

Lucifer slid down the wall, falling on his stomach against the wet ground in front of him. His whole body was tetanized by this hit...this simple touch. A muscular tetany that didn't stop his mind from running at full speed.  

How...How could she rival him? Take over so easily...catch him? Was it his fault? Because of his...relaxation? Of this aberration which had inhabited him from six months?  

Maybe.  

Who cared? 

He felt dizzy, but he distinctly heard the crystalline and irritating laughter of his dear aunt near him. Within once second and without understanding – once again - how, Lucifer was pinned against the wall; the thin, graceful hand of the goddess clasping his throat strongly, like icy and indestructible bird-talons. He tried to loosen this suffocating pinch around his trachea, his mouth opening pitifully in search of air. Eris watched him struggle without any conclusive result, a satisfied smile widening from second to second before his powerlessness. She tilted her heard to the side, a disappointing pout quickly replacing her joking smile.  

" Why everything is always complicated? It would have been much simpler if you'd helped me willingly...Anyway! So be it... We had to make do with what nature gives us! "  

With those words, the goddess accentuated her mortal embrace around Lucifer's throat, the latter only succeeding in producing a feeble whistle. His eyes got blanck as the air ran out of his painful lungs. He thought he felt Eris's palm against his side...It could just as well have been a figment of his imagination. Or a sensory hallucination due to the significant lack of oxygen.  

It was really...ridiculous.  

Even now... even by having left everything...by having left the most important person...the only one that really counted for him... 

Even after that...After all these sacrifices...He was still paying for the others.  

He was stripped of his choices.  

Over and over again.  

 _Lucifer refused to help for some vendetta? No problem...let's strangle him in a sordid cul-de-sac to get rid of him!_  

Brilliant idea, indeed.  

A familiar sound explosion suddenly disrupted this calm murder.  

Lucifer felt Eris's grip fade until completely disappeared. He fell on the ground, letting out a hoarse grunt as he tried to inspire a tiny amount of air vital to his survival. He remained for a moment lying on the ground, panting and confused, to wonder what the hell had happened.  

What was that detonation? He knew this noise...he was sure of it. A new detonation sounded not far from him, Lucifer turning his head – heavy as lead – in that direction. He widened his eyes, confused.  

No...No way.  

He must have been... hallucinating.  

What...What on Earth was she doing here?!  

He stared at his blurry gaze Chloe pulling his entire firearm magazine on Eris, still vaporous and mocking not far from him, taunting the detective by her obvious lack of gunshot wounds no matter how many salvoes fired at her.  

Chloe was here... _here_ , near him.  

How...Why?  

Why did she not run away?  

She had to leave... 

Lucifer grunted weakly while trying to lean on his forearms to straighten up. Wasted effort. The insistent swinging of his temples grew dangerously, causing his vision to falter almost immediately as his hands slid against the damp surface offered by the ground beneath him. He felt back on the latter, breathless. Since when was he so weak? Even with Chloe near him, he'd never experienced this tiredness. It was incomprehensible and undesirable. He wanted to straighten up...to protect Chloe...destroy Eris...But...he was just powerlessness, lying on the cold floor...his painful temple – as the rest of is body – tasting the icy puddle under him. His heart missed a beat at Chloe's strangled cry. A cry quickly followed by the crystalline laughter of the goddess.  

A cry which he became mad.  

An adequate fury to take over this strange physical weakness. Lucifer opened his eyes, leaning once more on his forearms to move away from the ground. An icy breath caressed the back of his neck as he heard Eris whispering to his ear:  

" Thank you so much for your help, Lucifer...See you soon, big boy! " 

Before Lucifer was able to sketch a single movement, the oppressive presence of his aunt at his side totally disappeared. Lucifer inhaled loudly through his opened mouth, surprised at having held his breath so long. He groaned, bringing a hand to the back of his neck stiffened by pain. He brought his hand back to his stubbornly blur sight, scrutinizing the red tint permeating the epidermis of his palm with an unfocused eye. He carefully turned his head towards the staircase, looking for Chloe...and any threatening trace of Eris. The matter was obviously no longer around.  

A good thing.  

The only single good thing.  

Lucifer's heart missed a new beat as he saw the detective inert on the floor, not far from the door.  

" D...Detective! ", he exclaimed, worried.  

He straightened up on his legs, staggering up to her and kneeling rapidly at her side. He took her face between his hands, caressing the inside of her neck in search of a sign of life. He let out a long sigh of relief as he felt a sharp pulsation against his trembling fingers. He scrutinized Chloe's face, lost in this essential contemplation.  

That face that haunted his nights. That face...he never thought to see again.  

How did she find him?  

Why did she come here?  

The door opened violently, extirpating Lucifer from these insistent questions, the latter surrounding the detective with his arms in a protective embrace. He looked puzzledly at Mazikeen who raised her arms in the air while displaying a sincerely dismayed look:  

" What the hell happened?! ", she exclaimed forcefully.  

Lucifer didn't answer. He had to admit that he had exactly the same question in mind.  

What a wonderful coincidence.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eris is the Goddess of Discord. This character is well inspired from "Sinbad" (go check on Google), a vilain I loved since my childhood.  
> Let a comment as always!  
> And next chapter as soon as possible! :)


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